French police opened fire Sunday at a car which smashed through a security barrier in central Paris close to the finishing line of cycling's Tour de France, a police source said.

The authorities were still searching for the driver after the incident which happened at around 8:00 am (0600 GMT) at the Place de Concorde at the end of the famous Champs Elysees, where the world's greatest cycling race is to finish later Sunday.

French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian began a two-day visit to Cairo Saturday, just days after France delivered the first batch of 24 Rafale warplanes Egypt bought in a multi-billion-euro deal.

Le Drian, who is on a tour of Africa, is to hold talks with Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and other Egyptian officials during his trip.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius is expected to tackle during his upcoming visit to Iran Lebanon's presidential vacuum amid the ongoing disputes between its rival political camps, reported the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat on Saturday.

A French source told the daily that the minister is “cautiously optimistic” over tackling the issue with Iranian officials with hope that it will facilitate staging of the polls.

Veteran far-right French politician Jean-Marie Le Pen will appear in court over comments made in April in which he repeated that "gas chambers were a detail" of World War II.

A source close to the investigation told AFP on Friday that prosecutors had summoned Le Pen, founder of France's far-right National Front party, a few weeks ago to stand trial for denying crimes against humanity.

EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini will visit Iran and Saudi Arabia next week following the agreement she helped broker with Tehran on its contested nuclear program, her office said Thursday.

The talks in Saudi Arabia on Monday will cover "regional issues, in the aftermath of the agreement reached on 14 July on the Iranian nuclear issue, as well as international issues of common interest," a statement said.

Preliminary investigations into the kidnapping of five Czech citizens in Lebanon last week suggest the case is criminal, Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq said on Wednesday.

"We've arrived at the beginning of the end of the thread (of investigations), and it relates to mafias, drug trafficking and weapons," the official National News Agency quoted him as saying.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat stated that Lebanon should await the outcome of the meeting between Iranian officials and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius to determine whether the election of a president will be facilitated, reported the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat on Wednesday.

He told the daily: “If the Iranian side does not show flexibility regarding the elections and the cabinet's upcoming session, then it would therefore be attempting to alter the Taef Accord.”

France signaled a "breakthrough" Tuesday at 46-nation talks in Paris tasked with paving the way for a highly-anticipated climate rescue pact to be inked in December.

Ministers and top officials at an informal gathering reached consensus on several issues that have stymied the official negotiations for years, France's top climate negotiator Laurence Tubiana told journalists.

Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq began a two-day visit to France Tuesday by meeting his French counterpart Bernard Cazeneuve.

Mashnouq is accompanied by a high-ranking security delegation comprising General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim and Brig. Gen. Imad Othman, head of the Internal Security Forces Intelligence Branch.

A French prosecutor on Tuesday said there was no case to answer regarding the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, whose widow alleges he was poisoned.

"The prosecution gave the opinion that the case should be dismissed," the prosecutor's office told AFP.